Further Thoughts (and Some Retractions) on BSG

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Well, some of you have pointed out things that I've missed, and I've remembered some more stuff on my own, so I'm rethinking some of the points I made earlier.

zyxwvut tells me that the oracle who spoke to Deanna and the oracle who spoke to Starbuck are actually not the same oracle. So, I guess that blows my whole theory about the oracle out of the water.

So, I'm back to thinking about who the Final Cylon really is. A lot of you want me to think it's Starbuck, but I remain unconvinced on this one, largely due to the reappearance of her solid Viper. I think she's either gone through some sort of time warp or wormhole or similar classical science fiction convention. I continue to believe that we need to remember that we are looking at science fiction here, particularly science fiction that hearkens back through the history of the genre.

So then there's Baltar. In my irrational exuberance over Lee Adama's telling us all that Baltar was right to surrender to the Cylons, I forgot about Baltar's flashiest Season 2 frak-up -- the Nuclear Bomb Incident. Now that that would certainly lead a person to conclude that Barlar was the One. I'm going to grant anyone who believes it's Baltar a certain degree of credibility.

However, I am still stuck on the fact that the Scriptwriters have left themselves a whole season with only one more Cylon to reveal, and extremely obvious damning evidence against exactly two characters (in the case of Starbuck, her reappearance from the apparent dead; and in the case of Baltar, the Caprica Six in his head and the Baltar in Caprica Six's head). They clearly are setting themselves up to toy with us all season about which one it is. Therefore, to me, it still seems too easy for it to be either one of them.

My latest guess, although I do not have strong evidence for it, is Tom Zarek. This guess is not based on anything in particular about Tom's character or what he does, but instead based on the actor who plays him. I think it would be wonderful fun for fans of the original series (including, presumably, the Scriptwriters) to turn Richard Hatch into a Cylon. I am completely unsure about this, but I don't see sufficient damning evidence against anyone in else in particular.

keren_s asked me to think about the religions in the series, so I have given that due consideration. solomita also made me think about the eventual goal of the Cylons. These two things got me to wondering who exactly is programming the Cylons. Maybe the Cylons' one god is actually real, and the programmer of the Cylons. What sort of entity would this god be? My guess is an artificial super-intelligence, the next evolutionary step beyond the skinjobs. This would be consistent with the conventions of science fiction dating back at least to 2001 (with the glaring exception of Star Trek V, which we are, of course, all still trying to forget).

What of the human religion? Is it really a coincidence that there are (correct me if I'm wrong) twelve human gods, corresponding to the twelve Zodiac signs, and twelve Cylon types? There must be some connection here, although I'll be damned if I can figure out what. It can't be that the skinjobs are in fact the human gods, because the human religion is older than even the Cylon drones. And it can't be that the skinjobs were programmed to be imitative of the human gods, because they are supposed to have evolved, and we all know evolution is random. They aren't going to somehow vindicate intelligent design, are they? So, I think there must be a tie-in, but I'm baffled as to what it could be.

If it is true that, as elphie has told me, BSG (at least the original one) is based on Scientology [EDIT: she apparently said Mormonism; it was a couple of years ago that we had this conversation], then I could be wrong about the human religion. Maybe the gods will turn out to be real. I hope not.

I had another interesting thought, which I put in a response to a comment from keren_s. I'll reiterate it here for convenience: what would be the downside of discovering you're a Cylon? After all, that makes you immortal (at least so long as you're within range of the Resurrection Ship). But it also means that you are programmed, and supposedly not really in control of your own actions. But clearly Cylons can defy their programming -- witness Athena-Boomer, Deanna, and eventually Caprica Six herself. But the humans are also supposed to be subject, at least on a collective level, to this religious destiny to get them back to Earth, what I've previously called the Path. Does that mean that the humans are any less controlled than the Cylons? Yes, they apparently have to work to achieve their destiny and follow the Path, while the Cylons seem to have to work to avoid their programming. I find this an interesting parallel, although, I don't know what it ultimately means.

I think of the differences between these as part of the post-9/11 metaphor in which the entire show is steeped. c.f., how al Qaeda thinks of us Westerners as "godless"; the awful things they've done as they believe to be "God's Will"; etc.

Wow, I shouldn't be surprised that someone out there is geekier than I am about this stuff.

I think of the differences between these as part of the post-9/11 metaphor in which the entire show is steeped. c.f., how al Qaeda thinks of us Westerners as "godless"; the awful things they've done as they believe to be "God's Will"; etc.

Interesting, fits right in with what I have been saying about moral ambiguity.